2 years before Woodstock, over 200,000 young people descended upon a sleepy California fishing village for a 3 day celebration of music, peace, flowers, and love that heralded the beginning of "The Summer of Love".

If you're goin'... wear some flowers in your hair.

When I found this film, I knew I had to have it. And, I have not been disappointed. It's great. D.A. Pennebraker captured the reality of The First Annual International Monterey Pop Music Festival. (Unfortunately, it was also the last annual.) This documentary is raw, gritty, and filled with sights and sounds you won't find in any Hollywood portrayal of the "hippie movement". Every time I watch it, it takes me back to that wonderfully magic moment in time.

You will enjoy the live performances of Janis Joplin (the weekend she signed a recording contract), The Jimi Hendrix Experience (their USA debut), Canned Heat, The Mamas and The Papas, Hugh Masakela, Jefferson Airplane, County Joe and the Fish, Ravi Shankar, Otis Redding, The Who, and many many others.

You will also get to see some the effect it can have upon a small town when it expands to 8 times its normal size for 3 days with not 1 arrest being made.

This weekend might have set the tone for the Summer of Love, but the music defined a whole new generation, and this film captures both.

Five Stars, for sure, I'd like to give it six.

Stan


This is what it is like when someone "steals" a show.   January 26, 2000
gene blue (Chicago's North Side (Edgewater))
9 out of 9 found this review helpful

Janis Joplin blew this crowd away. It is spectacular to watch the reaction from Mama Cass as her mouth literally drops open and to hear the screams from this audience when Janis sings Ball and Chain. By the way this performance is on the 3-CD boxed set released in 1993 called Janis. And to be sure Janis wasn't the only reason to watch Monterey, a haunting set from Otis (a god) and a little heard of guitarist named Jimi Hendrix (a god). This was not my generation having only recently graduated high school, but why oh why can't concerts be this beautiful with so little aggression any more?


"Monterey Pop": A REAL Hippie Music Experience   December 2, 1998
20 out of 24 found this review helpful

"Monterey Pop" captures the real essense of a "Hippie" music festival preceding slick commercial "pseudo-Hippie" productions

With often-jerky hand-held cameras, D. A. Pennepaker brings together color, clothing and culture of the Hippie period supported by its musical boundaries.

Present are mainstream Simon & Garfunkel, R&B's Otis Redding, and exotic Hugh Masakela and Marion Makeba's African folk/jazz. Included are Rock's lesser knowns Scott McKenzie, Canned Heat, Country Joe and the Fish and Eric Burdon and the Animals. Featured are "big names": The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Mommas and Poppas, Janis Joplin & Big Brother, Jefferson Airplane. An exciting 18-minute Ravi Shankar raga melds two worlds as a fitting finale.

An undercurrent of the film is how Pennepaker catches a "hippie" vs "mainstream" motif. Capturing Hippie culture: sharing food, offering barely articulate enthusiasms, or presenting an off-the-wall dress code; he compares it with better-dressed, more upscale audience members. With the images, one recognizes music unifing these differences.

It ain't MTV, or fancy camera lens stuff: just straight-ahead documentary; but it's a GREAT way to spend 98 delightful, laid-back minutes.


Ravi Shankar definitely not 'peripheral'   November 3, 2002
Jonathan King (Berkeley, CA United States)
7 out of 8 found this review helpful

Just a rejoinder to the reviewer who lamented the fact that Ravi Shankar's performance was given 20 minutes, at the expense of (unnamed) other acts. It's important to remember that Shankar was the only performer at Monterey to be given an entire show to himself -- Sunday afternoon, the fourth of five shows that weekend. Other shows featured a dozen or more performers each. His music was at the time almost entirely unfamiliar to the audience, though the sitar had begun creeping into pop music through the work of the Beatles and a few others. (The Sgt. Pepper album, featuring the sitar-drenched "Within You and Without You," had been in the stores about two weeks when Monterey was held." Anyway, he held the audience spellbound for those two hours, as is clearly shown in the footage, including the youngest, most unaware patrons. How do I know? I was there, age 17, impatient for the Buffalo Springfield, the Who, Jefferson Airplane, and all the rest -- but was soon blown completely away by Shankar's performance. I'd love to see a "Ravi at Monterey" film, showing the whole set, to enjoy along with Jimi and Otis. Maybe some extra footage will turn up in the 2-hour bonus DVD coming out in November '02!


Somewhat disapointed   January 3, 2007
A (Ohio)
12 out of 15 found this review helpful

Don't get me wrong, of course this is an awesome video. But I do have to say that is is not what I had expected. They did not show an entire song for most of the bands that performed. They would cut out a few seconds into a performance. It could have been more complete. I want to know why can't we just get the footage of all of it.